


In Between

by butraura



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 20:09:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7188281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butraura/pseuds/butraura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maya decides she's sick to death of being in a triangle. She's 17 and has devoted most of her high school career to it. </p><p>When she meets a boy in art class, and they hit it off, he helps her realize there are other fish in the sea, and she doesn't need Lucas to be fulfilled.</p><p>Lucas decides he doesn't trust the new guy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Between

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying my hand at a chapter fic. I'm not the best at keeping up with them, so we will see how it goes. Between work, school, and personal stuff, writing isn't the top priority. I love it though, so I will try to be actively updating.

When Maya walks in to class one day, literally the only class she's away from all of her friends (advanced art technique and application), there's a boy sitting at the table she fought to get to herself. And he's not a boy she recognizes. 

She approaches him tentatively and drops her bag on the floor beneath her, and dramatically takes a seat next to him. She can feel him looking at her but she continues to ignore him. She drapes her hair over her face so she doesn't see him.

Ms. Lopes comes in and drops her stuff on her desk. She seems flustered and a few sheets of paper fall and she just laughs at herself. "For the first ten minutes of class, I'm going to have you draw in your sketchbooks," she announces. "Your prompt is on the board."

Maya cranes her neck to see the chalkboard, where the words, "in between" are written. Maya loved vague prompts because it was entirely up to the artist to decide what it means to them. She pulls out her pencil set, which was provided for each student by the school, and she immediately starts sketching.

The boy, she notices, is eyeing her page as she goes, and she turns to put her back between her art and his eyes. After a moment she feels him turn away and she relaxes, and allows herself to focus on her art. She loves art. It brings her to a different place, a place without pain, a place without disappointment, a place without annoying fucking triangles. Her and Riley were still good. Nothing could ever come between that, it seems, even if it was Lucas. Especially since their situations weren't getting any better or any worse, although Riley seemed to have eyes for Zay these days, too. 

She shifts in her chair to sit more comfortably facing forward, but still lets her hair drape over the right side of her face to conceal most of her work. She sketches a long hallway. Worn brick, chipped paint. On the far end of the hallway, there is a door, and through the door, the perspective is facing upwards from the ground, at the sky, the trees, and what looks like people surrounding it. She draws a girl, who is tentative to continue down the hallway, carefully holding the wall beside her, which becomes increasingly beautiful and well-kept as she goes. The worn brick from farther down the hallway becomes new, freshly painted, and stark white. The ground, which was barren and patchy and bumpy, becomes plentiful with green grass on a flat terrain. The door way in which the girl is approaching is ajar, and the inside only enhances the perfect garden image.

Ten minutes is up shortly. "Okay, everyone," Ms. Lopes chimes again, "I want you to share your work with the person next to you. What does 'in between' mean to you?"

Everyone shuffles then and Maya dreads sharing her art with the boy next to her. Mostly because her art is very personal to her and sharing it would be considered a very intimate thing for her, and also because she just met this kid and he might not know monochromatic from surrealism and that would hurt her head. She turns to him though, and he has a lopsided smile on his face, and not the kind that Zay gives you when he's about to piss you off with Celine Dion factoids, but a soft one full of curiosity and wonder. She immediately cools off.

"Hi," she greets him. "I'm Maya."

"I'm Noah" he tells her brightly. "I'm sorry I was watching you draw. But you do it so intently and I've never seen anyone so passionate about art."

She's dumbfounded by the compliment this stranger just gave her. "Thank you," she replies carefully. "my favourite medium is charcoal. Do you have a favourite?"

"Watercolours. Definitely watercolours. The results are otherworldly," he explains. "Can I see your piece?" She's suddenly very self-conscious about her art and her abilities to draw anything aside from a stick figure, but still, she slides her sketchbook over to his side of the table, and he looks it over. She bunches her shirt sleeves in her fists - a nervous habit - while he assesses it. He turns back to her. "I love it."

"I know it's not very clear what it is but I just love dimensional art and I love the whole idea of an in-between state-" she rambles.

"If you know anything about art, and anything at all about people," he cuts her off, "then you know that piece is obviously the plane between life and death. And I think it's so cool that you included the door from the grave." He just stares at the sketchbook in awe, and Maya is surprised by his ability to understand her in a way no one has ever been able to understand her.

She suddenly feels very vulnerable. "Show me yours," she insists. He nods and sends his book her way, and she's confused at first by what she sees. 

She sees two people, and the person on the left is wearing the same knew high boots as her, and the legs are crossed the way hers are now. And the other person is wearing the same plaid shirt that Noah is wearing, and it clicks. The picture was of the space between the two of them at the desk. She looks at him, both with wonder and confusion, and he laughs, and it warms her soul. "The state of our inbetween is the state I care about. I want to get to know you, if you'd let me."

She blushes, but laughs. "That was really fucking cheesy."

"Yes it was," he admits. "Consider it my gentlemanly way of trying to ask for your number." He winks.

She tears a page from her sketchbook and scrawls her number on it before folding it and slipping it in to his shirt pocket. 

Ms. Lopes regains everyone's attention then and class begins.

**********

Shortly after class, Maya finds a seat with her friends at the cafeteria, between Riley and Farkle. She plops her tray on the table, and drops her bag with a sigh. She leans her head on her best friend's shoulder without a word, and takes a heaping bite of her Caesar salad (drenched in dressing, of course). Lucas doesn't pause his rant to Farkle about baseball, and everyone is listening intently. 

"No, dude, if the ball bounces before being caught it doesn't count as an out," he says.

"But why not if the player gets the ball and throws it to a baseman before the runner?" Farkle counters.

"It still does, man, but it's not an IMMEDIATE out unless it's caught." 

Farkle throws his hands up in annoyance. "Sports are stupid," he complains.

"I like baseball because they wear really tight pants," Riley giggles, earning a laugh from Smackle, opposite her boyfriend.

Lucas rolls his eyes but laughs. "Zay, explain it."

Zay stands up. "Okay, so if I'm pitching and Maya is batting, and she swings and misses every time, she's out. If she swings, hits, and Lucas, on my team, catches it, she's automatically out. If she swings, hits, and it bounces before Lucas gets it, she can run, and if she can't get to first base before Lucas can throw to that base and Riley, also on my team, can tag her, then that's also an out."

"If you're pitching and I'm batting, I'm walking," Maya jabs, teasing Zay.

"Hey don't knock my pitching skills, Hart; I own the field," he replies, making a swinging motion. Everyone laughs.

"Yeah, he's so good," Lucas retorts, "he was voted MVB of our little league team back in Texas."

"MVB?" Riley queries. 

"Most Valuable Benchwarmer," Maya finishes, and Lucas loses his mind snickering. He holds his hand out for a high five from the blonde beauty, but her face is buried in her phone.

He drops his hand and Riley looks down at her friend. "Why so distracted, Peaches? Usually you hate people being on their phone at lunch."

"Nothing," Maya answers, only half-listening.

Riley stops and gasps. She pushes her friend's head off her shoulders and makes her look at her. "It's a boy!" The table is silent and Maya freezes. "It's a boy isn't it?"

"No!" Maya quickly replies, lowering her phone from Riley's line of vision. 

"Ring power!" the brunette yells sternly, holding up the ring she bought for the two of them three years ago. 

Maya huffs but turns to her best friend. "His name is Noah and he's in my art app class," she explains briefly. She turns the phone to Riley, to show her a picture. 

"Ah, he's so cute!" she squeals. "You guys are already texting? Must be serious!"

"Not at all, yet," Maya shakes her head but grins. "But he's really cute and knows a lot about art and he just... gets my art. He understands every single aspect of it so vividly and he's really nice and disgustingly cheesy and I know that I told you that if anyone ever acted that way around me I would fight them but for some reason it just makes me laugh when he does it."

Riley shrieks and hugs Maya. "Peaches, I'm so happy for you, oh my god!"

Lucas is watching the two of them and suddenly is really curious about this mystery guy. He frowns but says nothing. He thought Maya liked him? 

"I, too, would like to see this new hunk," Smackle interjects, coming around behind the girls to peek. They show her and she giggles. "He is cute."

Farkle looks over Maya's shoulder. "Objectionably, I have to agree that he is someone I would think a girl would be attracted to."

Zay stands up to look, but Lucas grabs his arm and says lowly, "if you look, you're dead to me." Zay only laughs and returns to his seat. 

There's a text tone that sounds loudly over the girls' chatter, and everyone is silent. "It's him," Maya informs them excitedly, and Smackle shoos Farkle out of his seat and ushers him to hers. She sits beside her friend. "He said, 'do you want to hang out tomorrow? We can grab dinner and go to the museum.'" She's silent but internally screaming.

"Maya," Riley practically shouts. "Say yes!"

Maya types out, sure. I'd love to, and sends it. Her stomach flip flops and the girls are giggling. Maya peers up at Lucas under her lashes and he's looking away. She can't wait around for him to decide whether or not he wants to be with her. She decides to be excited about a date with Noah. 

**********

The next afternoon, Maya, Smackle, and Zay are all at Riley's trying to help Maya pick out an outfit for her date, only half an hour away. They've decided on a hairstyle - a waterfall braid, and a bra - her black lacy one "in case she gets lucky" (although she assures them, she most certainly will not on the first date). 

They can't decide on an outfit. Should she wear a dress, jeans and a jacket, skirt and blouse, etc. She's been trying on outfits all day. She comes in to the room and twirls, unsure of herself. 

"Woo!" Riley cheers, clapping, making Maya laugh. This time around, she's in a grey belly top with high-waisted jean shorts and a soft blue cardigan that falls loosely. Her shoes are grey and white sneakers with the hidden heel in them to give her additional height. 

"What a looker," Zay shouts, pretending to have a heart attack. All the girls chuckle at his ridiculousness but Riley nods. 

"Honestly, Peaches, I think this is the one," she says.

Good enough. Maya smiles and picks up her other clothes that she threw around Riley's room and dumps them on her bed. "Can I come back after the date?"

"You better," Riley says.

"Can I come over too so I can hear about it?" Smackle interjects.

"You better," Maya mimics seriously, but with a smile.

There's a knock on the window and Farkle and Lucas smile sheepishly. Zay lets them in and they crawl in one by one, plunking down at the bay window. "Ladies," he greets. "...and Zay."

"Farkle," all three girls say in unison. 

"What am I, an afterthought?" Zay says, hurt. 

"We love you Zay," Riley says, and the girls all give him a kiss on his cheeks at once.

"That's better," he nods sternly, but laughs.

"What are you guys doing?" Lucas asks curiously.

"Getting Maya ready for her date," Riley grins. 

The room is uncharacteristically quiet then, and he swallows. "You look really good."

"Thanks, Lucas." Maya nods, a curt smile. She sits on Riley's bed and sighs.

"What, no 'Huckleberry'? No 'Ranger Rick'?" Lucas wonders, confused and a little upset. Where was the girl he knew?

"Not right now," she answers him.

There's a knock on Riley's door, and Cory appears. "Maya, your date is here."

Smackle and Riley jump up and are out of the door before Maya could stand up, and she runs after them, afraid they'll say something to embarrass the shit out of her. Everyone then charges after the girls, and they stop dead in their tracks when they see a guy their age, well dressed but no too fancy, waiting at the door with a bouquet of carnations. 

Who gets a girl carnations and not roses? Lucas wonders.

"How did you know carnations were my favourite?" Maya asks softly, taking them. 

"You drew them, he explains. "In your sketch yesterday. The door had carnations all over the grass."

She's in awe, one because he noticed that, and two, because she didn't even realize she did it. She smells them gently and looks to Riley. 

"I'm Riley," she tells him cheerily. "Maya and I are like sisters. So have fun, stay out as long as you want, but bring her back home when the night is over. Bring her here."

"Of course, Riley. Have a good night everyone," Noah smiles. 

They start to leave, arm in arm, and Lucas stops them. "Noah," he calls. "You better take care of her."

"I wouldn't dream of hurting her," the boy promises. And they're gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought!


End file.
